HELP! My horse tried to kill the vet!

Kokopelli

Kokopelli

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We found the perfect horse after 6 months of searching! He is lovely and never nasty to anybody around him until we had the vet out.

At first he was fine with the vet like he is with everyone else but the vet left the stable after making friends with him and came back with a stephoscope and Koko just went crazy he was petrified of the vet was kicking out sideways, rearing and trying to run away from the vet.

Eventually the vet just gave up with the stephescope and looked at his teeth, Koko excepted this without and objections.

Then when the vet did the flexion test he was fine on his front legs but was naughty on his back legs and started rearing and kicking again.

We recently had the saddle fitter out and when she tried to get a template of his back he tried to kick her as he thought she was a vet aswell but eventually he excepted that she wasn't a vet and calmed down. He's fine with the farrier aswell.

We spoke to his old owners and she said he was fine with the vet until he was cut because he was cut late he just associates the vet with being cut (I don't blame him really) The problem we got now is that if he is ill or has an injury and needs the vet desperatly there is no way he can be treated!

Can anyone help me or give me advice on how to stop him behaving like this with the vet, maybe reduce his fear of the vet etc?

P.S sorry for the rant but I think you need the whole story
 
Does he show any sort of rig/stallion type tendancies? (not saying he is a rig etc but being cut late wondered if he showed any other stalion type tendancies)
 
Well I'd borrow vet equipment like the steth etc, and have it around him when you're in his box without anyone else. Then (if you can afford it, or have a friend who'll pretend to be a vet) get them to walk in with "vet like equipment", give him a pat and a feed, and then leave. Do it again with other randoms, pat, feed, maybe run the steth around his shoulder, then leave. Carry so on and so forth and then eventually get the vet to come in again. And hope for the best!

Good luck! xxxx
 
Wow, he certainly remembers something bad doesn't he?!:eek:
If he was fine with the vet before he got his stethoscope out, then maybe you could buy yourself an old stethoscope and hang it in his stable, so he gets used to them being around him. Then as his fear (hopefully) lessens try you going up to him with it. I used some clicker training on my horse and it really worked. Maybe try clicker training, so he gets a treat everytime he deosn't shy away from the stethoscope.
 
My mare has never forgotten the vet who microchipped her. She is fine with women vets, fine with farrier and other men, and fine with my Italian Stallion vet (but then what woman wouldn't be :o) so it's just the one, and she can spot him coming a mile off :(.

Maybe try a woman vet with your horse and see how he is with her?
 
skychick said:
Does he show any sort of rig/stallion type tendancies? (not saying he is a rig etc but being cut late wondered if he showed any other stalion type tendancies)
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He does act a bit like a stallion he's a right flirt and prances around when theres mares, not sure if that is just him though :) We got a load of stephoscopes from toys r us and hang them up round the stable but thats not what bothers him.

We also use old worming tubes to pretend were giving him injections but he''s not responding to anything.

It really hurts me to see him act so frightened to someone who is trying to help him.
 
You need to desensetise him! Get a white coat and stephoscope and pretend to be the vet. Do this with help of course, incase he goes mental!
Do what a vet would do, and give him praise when he relaxes.

It probably because a vet only comes out to do nasty things like jabs and cuts that horses hate vets!
 
Kokopelli said:
He does act a bit like a stallion he's a right flirt and prances around when theres mares, not sure if that is just him though :) We got a load of stephoscopes from toys r us and hang them up round the stable but thats not what bothers him.
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half of the times its the mare that teases the gelding making them act like this. i would get some one unfarmilliar to him to play around with him with some vet equipment or similar and just reward him when he accepts it. keep it up untill he is fine with it, it may take some time.
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Our vet doesn't wear a white coat he just looks like any other man, he's worse with female vets which is strange.

I think he can also smell the vet, we have lots of sedalin in case theres and emergency we can quickly sedate him.

The other problem is even if he has a minor cut and I try to deal with it he gets frightened of me. He has never lifted a leg to me but I can tell he was scared of me.

Is this one of them situations natural horsemanship might work? I'm not thinking Pat Parelli after stoneleigh park but maybe one of monty roberts people?
 
Another way round this is to keep an overall type of coat outside his stable and get everyone who goes in his stable to put it on and feed him, pick up his feet or whatever then get the vet to wear it to handle him.
 
Kokopelli said:
He does act a bit like a stallion he's a right flirt and prances around when theres mares, not sure if that is just him though :) We got a load of stephoscopes from toys r us and hang them up round the stable but thats not what bothers him.

We also use old worming tubes to pretend were giving him injections but he''s not responding to anything.

It really hurts me to see him act so frightened to someone who is trying to help him.
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The only reason i ask is because if he was showing other stallion type tendancies there are supplements you can get to help surpress those sides of his behaviour. Im not sure though if it would work re just being scared of the vet.
Maybe as others have suggested try a different sex vet and see how he reacts.
I feel for you though you want to know that should there be an emergency a vet can come and treat the horse without any problems.

Good luck.
 
No he only acts like a stallion when theres a mare around :p

Theres even a vetinary nurse at our yard and we asked her to come and pat him etc but after one attempt she refused to go near him again :/ not good
 
I have one on loan who had vet issues - he doesn't any more.

Quite simply, we neck twitch him straight away (which works for him) before the vet even walks in now and he is very accepting - to the extent that this probably isn't necessary any more but having had an eye level view of his front hooves I am all for being cautious.
 
My mare was exactly the same with the vets after a very bad foaling, I think its the smell of the vets that the horses react to, she could spot a vet a mile off.
 
Kokopelli said:
No he only acts like a stallion when theres a mare around :p

Theres even a vetinary nurse at our yard and we asked her to come and pat him etc but after one attempt she refused to go near him again :/ not good
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You all need to spray a little dilute Hibiscrub on yourselves before you walk into his stable, every time. Eventually he will stop noticing!
 
Also what about the old vicks under his nostrils trick so he can't smell anything but that?
Would be a good idea to get him used to the vicks smell first though.

But if he won't let you treat a cut then are you sure it's smell related? We're us using disinfectant to treat the cut?

Sounds like you're on the right lines just a lot of trial and error to find out what it is that acutally sets him off.
 
Well he can indentify the vet by the smell of them and hates anything vet related done to him except his teeth. You can't even meausre his heart rate or feel down his hind legs for bumps or lumps if your a vet.
 
I work alone at my stud and my ponies are only used with me, so when someone new is introduced they have to trust me to realise that I wouldn't let anything untowards happen with them, however with a little stallion we had he was super with me doing anything with him but loathed the vet after an accident where his back legs had been mangled in a fence

first visit he was fine but there after he went a bit banana's with the vet, what I did was get as many people to come and 'inspect' him so he started to get desensitised to others around him, we even got a stethescope for others to use on him!!! it did make a difference as then when the vet came it wasn't something unusual to him

I would go back to basic handling with your lad, do alot of inhand schooling so you have total respect on the ground so when the vet comes again he will respect your handling instead of him going on his flight or fight mode, if he was to start battling with you, stop what you are doing and ask him to back up, move his quarters etc, get his mind focused on working and paying attention, the more his mind thinks about this he will feel less stressed

I hope you can get it sorted out as nothing more dangerous for you and him if he just freaks out and forgets he is being handled!
 
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